


a spoonful of nutella

by Ljparis



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Book 5: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Canon Compliant, Gen, Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, Nutella, Worry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-15
Updated: 2019-02-15
Packaged: 2019-10-20 12:21:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17622287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ljparis/pseuds/Ljparis
Summary: 12 Grimmauld Place didn't really feel anymore like home to Harry than Privet Drive did. And yet he somehow felt more comfortable here than he had anywhere else, except of course at Hogwarts. Maybe it was knowing that he had someone, that his parents had never meant for him to be stuck with the Dursleys, that they meant for him to be with Sirius. But now, finally, Harry found himself at a place where he was wanted.





	a spoonful of nutella

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Meatball42](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meatball42/gifts).



> I really appreciated your Harry & Sirius ask and the desire for a deeper look into the abuse in Harry's childhood and life. I know I didn't hit any of the AUs you suggested, but I hope that you enjoy this glance into his and Sirius's relationship nonetheless.

12 Grimmauld Place didn't really feel anymore like home to Harry than Privet Drive did. And yet he somehow felt more comfortable here than he had anywhere else, except of course at Hogwarts.

Maybe it was knowing that he had someone, that his parents had never meant for him to be stuck with the Dursleys, that they meant for him to be with Sirius. These past few years - his entire life really - had been such a roller coaster. Answers to questions he didn't even know he had were withheld, then given, then taken away again.

But now, finally, Harry found himself at a place where he was _wanted_. Even if that home was terrifying in its own right, with boggarts popping out of wardrobes and maniacal screaming portraits, and draughty rooms that didn't ever seem to warm even with a fire and a warming spell. None of that mattered because Sirius wanted him here, and Harry wanted to be here too. 

It was early, too early in the morning to really be awake, but Harry's mind was going a mile a minute and his stomach was growling. He swung himself out of the bed, curled his toes against the cold floor. He paused, listening to the comfortable snort of Ron's sleep-breathing, and then scrambled to find socks to pull on. He always seemed to lose his sometime in the middle of the night.

Only in the middle of the night was the house relatively quiet, with the exception of the creaks and moans that came with a house this old that held too many secrets and lies and - Harry shuddered to think what else exactly.

He tried to walk as quietly as he could down the stairs, careful to step past one of the squeakiest steps, and then padded down the narrow hallway to the kitchen at the back of the house. There were no lights on, not even the glow of a candle burning, and Harry thought maybe he was the only person awake. Given that Grimmauld had become the Order's homebase, there were always people around. He could hear his own breathing, his own heart beating, as he stepped into the kitchen alone.

Harry didn't know what time it was and though he knew he was allowed to be in the kitchen like this, he still looked back over his shoulder expecting to see his aunt or his uncle or - well, he expected to be caught, even if he wasn't doing anything wrong. (He never was doing anything wrong with his aunt or uncle 'caught' him.) 

His stomach rumbled again, reminding him why he'd come down here in the middle of the night in the first place. He opened a cupboard and found a jar of Nutella and then rummaged around until he located the spoons. Then he sat at the big wooden table that took up most of the kitchen, his legs swinging, and unscrewed the jar. There wasn't much left, maybe a few spoonfuls, and Harry thought maybe he should find a slice of bread and toast it but then decided he didn't want to do that and there was no one here to tell him he had to do that and also no one here to tell him that he couldn't have the Nutella at all. So, he thought, why couldn't he just poke the spoon in and eat it straight from the jar all on his own?

He hesitated anyway. Then took a deep breath and got into eating the Nutella, trying to push every worry out of his head and just focusing on enjoying the chocolate-hazelnut goodness. Which he did, complete with a big smile and extra lick of the spoon, tapping his socked foot on the leg of his chair.

So wrapped up in his enjoyment of Nutella that he was, Harry didn't hear Sirius come into the kitchen until he said his name. He jumped, knocking his knee off the underside of the table and dropping the spoon with Nutella still on it onto the table.

"Sorry," he said, scrambling to stand up and away from the table. "Sorry, I didn't ask if I could -"

Sirius looked at him, head tilted to the side not unlike his usual questioning look as Snuffles, and Harry trailed off from finishing his automatic apology. "Is that Nutella?" Sirius asked, his voice quiet, hoarse in that way Harry had gotten used to the more time he got to spend with him.

He nodded, his eyes wide behind his glasses. "Yeah, it was in the cupboard. I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't have been -"

But Sirius was already walking past him, getting his own spoon out of the drawer even as Harry hurried to pick up the spoon he'd dropped when Sirius came in. "Can I have a spoonful?" 

Harry blinked at him. "Uh - yeah, yeah I'm sorry - here." He shoved the mostly-empty jar at Sirius and then stood there, awkwardly watching as Sirius poked his own spoon into it and came up with a bite or two of it. He held his spoon at his side, not daring to finish off what he'd left on it.

Sirius sat down across from where Harry had been sitting and set the jar back on the table between the two of them. With a nod of his head, a gesture of his spoon, he asked Harry to sit again. "My mother never let us have Nutella in the house," he said as Harry sat. "Too Muggle," he continued. "One of the first things I nicked when I got out of Azkaban. This stuff is what I think heaven must taste like."

It was more words than Harry was used to hearing him say all at once. "I -"

Sirius gestured to the spoon Harry had in a death grip. "Don't you like it?"

He looked at the Nutella on his spoon then back over at Sirius, who seemed to be waiting for him to go back to eating before partaking himself. "Right," he said. "I mean, yes, I like it. My - aunt never let me eat it either," Harry admitted after a moment.

A darkness flashed across Sirius's face, and Harry tried hard not to wince. But it passed quickly, and he twisted his mouth into something resembling a smile. "Well, then I'll have to ask Dora to pick up a few more jars next time she goes to Tesco, so you can eat as much of it as you want."

Harry almost didn't understand the words that he was hearing, but when he finally did, he smiled, a real smile, over at Sirius. "Cool," he said. "That sounds cool." He waited until Sirius stuck his spoon in his mouth before Harry let himself get back to it too, the taste of Nutella sweet and lingering on his tongue.


End file.
